Home > World War I > Franz Ferdinand Biography

December 18, 1863
Graz, Austria
June 28, 1914
Sarajevo, Bosnia

Political leader

It is a sad fact that the best-remembered detail of the life of Franz Ferdinand is his death. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the nephew of Austrian emperor Franz Josef (1830–1916) and the last heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Bosnia and Herzegovina was a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. While visiting the provincial capital of Sarajevo on official business, the archduke and his wife, Sophie, were killed by a Serbian named Gavrilo Princip (1894–1918). Princip belonged to a political group that was angered by Austro-Hun garian domination of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He felt that assassinating a high official of the empire would help Serbia's cause. Serbia was a country that wanted to unite the region— including Bosnia and Herzegovina—and gain independence from...